Sensible Naming and the Cards

It looks like we may just be seeing some of the fruits of the ATI acquisition here today; no, we're not talking about the Radeon HD 3800 series, but rather the naming of the cards. AMD is releasing two cards today, the Radeon HD 3870 and the 3850, both based off of the new RV670 GPU. Notice anything missing from the GPU names? That's right, gone are the annoying suffixes. AMD is committed to getting rid of the suffix with its GPU products, so you won't see any XT, LE, PE, FUFME, SE etc... versions of these graphics cards. Can we just say now that we think this is a great idea?

Even though the name ATI Radeon HD 3870 is still a little long for our tastes, it's still better than having confusing suffixes. As long as AMD sticks to the higher numbers means better cards methodology we're happy.

There is a method to the nomenclature madness, which the image below should explain:

The first digit is the product generation, the second digit is the family, and then the last two digits refer to performance within that family. This should sound a lot like AMD's new CPU naming system or Intel's current Core 2 family. Note that with today's launch we're already pretty high in the 3800 series, whether or not that means we'll be looking forward to a 3900 or 4000 soon is another matter entirely.

Specifics on the two cards are as follows:

The 3870 is a two-slot solution, it runs its core at a minimum of 775MHz and comes with 2.25GHz data rate memory. Despite the two-slot cooler, the 3870 is actually quieter than the 3850, which itself is much quieter than the 2900 XT.


The Radeon HD 3870

The 3850 is a single slot card, with a 670MHz core clock and a 1.66GHz memory clock. The cards are priced at $219 and $179, respectively (more on pricing later). Like the 3870, the Radeon HD 3850 is actually quiet.


The Radeon HD 3850

New Features you Say? UVD and DirectX 10.1 2, 3 or 4 GPUs: Introducing CrossFire X
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  • Parhel - Thursday, November 15, 2007 - link

    Even though you're wrong, do you mind if I use your math on my upcoming trip to Europe? It would really help me out. :)
  • MrKaz - Thursday, November 15, 2007 - link

    Since no one seems to ask but since when crossfire works on Nvidia 680i?

    Also you said this correctly over load power:
    "The difference is negligible, but when you include the fact that the 8800 GT is faster, the Radeon HD 3870 actually has worse performance-per-watt than the competition. "

    But you unfortunately failed to mention this over idle power:
    "The difference is huge, especially when comparing to the older ATI and NVIDIA offers, even when comparing to the new 8800GT it’s still a 40 Watts difference."
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, November 15, 2007 - link

    It doesn't, we used a P965 board for CrossFire, but you couldn't have known that - thus I've updated the test table :)

    And I've included commentary on the idle power of the 3800 series, my apologies for the oversight.

    Take care,
    Anand
  • MrKaz - Thursday, November 15, 2007 - link

    Anand do you think Crossfire scaling would improve if you used some X38 or rd580?
    Or the 4x PCIe slot on 965 doesn’t affect it much?

    Does the 790 and Phenom get reviewed this month?

    Continue the good work!
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, November 15, 2007 - link

    Personally I don't think the chipset is at fault for poor scaling here, but you do make a good point - I'll see if we can run some numbers internally and figure that out.

    Indeed this isn't the only AMD product that gets reviewed this month...

    :)
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, November 15, 2007 - link

    Woops, my mistake, Derek ran the CF tests and they were on a P35 board and not a P965. I've updated the article accordingly.

    Take care,
    Anand
  • MrKaz - Thursday, November 15, 2007 - link

    Thanks Anand!
  • jcromano - Thursday, November 15, 2007 - link

    From page 5:
    quote:

    Looking at our own price search engine we see that only Amazon is listing a card available at $249, but it's not in stock, nor are any of the other more expensive 8800 GTs listed.


    I have been unable to use the RTPE for the past two weeks or so. What's the trick? Here is the error it gives me:
    quote:

    Warning: mysql_pconnect(): Lost connection to MySQL server during query in /var/www/vweb/rtpeserve/php/login.php on line 53


    Jim
  • Crassus - Thursday, November 15, 2007 - link

    Yep. Same here error message here, both in Firefox and IE. I've been trying to make use of the RTPE for weeks now, without success. Or was it converted to Anandtech "staff only" use? ;c)
  • jcromano - Thursday, November 15, 2007 - link

    Ok. Thanks for the quick response. I look forward to the return of the RTPE, but maybe your shopping page can substitute in the meantime.

    Cheers,
    Jim

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